Describe how you would approach a problem involving surface area. what do you do first? what are some strategies you can use?

One basic strategy is to break the figure into pieces. By that I mean, focus  on the outer faces. Find the area of each face, and then add up all the sub-areas to get the grand total for the overall surface area.

Example: a cubic block has 6 faces. Find the area of each face, and then add up those six areas to get the overall surface area

I'd personally make sure I know all my formulas, depending on what the shape is.

You can also try cutting the shapes to make other shapes, and work on those, incase it's easier for you or it's just more practical. I recommend doing this when you're in a situation where breaking down can make you use simpler formulas.

Hope it helped,

BioTeacher101